Friday, January 29, 2010

Thursday morning, I went to my Drs appointment, had my blood drawn, and should be going back in about a week to get the results. After the doctor was a full day of work and then our team had a dinner at Ruth Chris Steakhouse.

I hadn't been to Ruth Chris is ages and was quite excited for some yummy eats.

Since we were a large group we had a pre-set menu, all the eats I had were great.

Shiraz was had, x 2

With a pre-set menu I was bummed that the one thing I saw online that I was craving didn't make the cut. Well my general fiestiness and a few whines to my boss, and this beauty was set down in front of me

This is their tomato and onion salad, topped with blue cheese and a champagne vinegarette. The tomatoes on this baby were GIGANTIC, I swear it was the biggest thing ever, but they were SO good, I inhaled every last bite.

After the salads came dinner. I ended up ordering a ribeye as I thought John may like some

and if not, there was enough that I have made three separate meals out of it. There were several side dishes that came with the meal served family style, I had a small serving of mashed potatoes and a couple of mushrooms but that was all- creamed spinach does not appeal to me at all, and the scalloped potatoes looked like a heart attack in a bowl.

I did manage to sneak home something for John to eat though...

Chocolate Sin Cake!

He enjoyed every bite as soon as I got home. I went to bed immediately as I cannot function with even 2 glasses of wine anymore- sad I know.

Today (Friday) was pretty normal- the usual bagel, slow at work and several disasters that make me question how people can procreate so easily.

Originally John and I were supposed to do our 12 mile run tonight, but after 2 miles he wasn't feeling great, so we headed back. At 4 miles I made a quick stop at the apartment to put on a dry shirt and use the bathroom and then headed up to the gym to do 4 more miles on the treadmill. I did the total 8 miles in 1 hour 22 minutes, and probably could have been a little quicker if I had been at a normal pace for the first 2 miles, but I kept it slow as I was expecting to do 12.

The 12 mile run should take place Sunday morning, and hopefully we can get a bike ride in this weekend also, even just a short one around the neighborhood. I also have my first test of the semester to complete this weekend and I am less than excited to get started.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Happy Tuesday to all, the week is moving along here, has been a tad wierd and now busy but moving on none the less.

I am happy to see that my running bug has started to rub off on Several friends, 2 of which have already registered for their first races. I wish everyone the best of luck, and hope what little insight I have may help you along the way.

Today I had normal eats, but when it came time for my afternoon snack I had only a couple minutes before a meeting and grabbed a Luna Bar I had in my desk for emergencies. It was a chocolate flavor and I was nervous it would be really chocolatey and make my mouth very dry and gross. The total opposite happened.

This bar was amazing a light chocolate and rasberry flavor- nothing overwhelming and nothing too sweet. It had almost like rice krispy pieces in the middle and I just thought it was fantastic. There will definitely be more of these my future!!!
So tonight when I got home from work we were supposed to do 3 miles and I wasn't really feeling it, but I was dying to try out my running skirt that I bought last week. So I told John that we would go and turn around when I lost my focus. We talked pretty much the whole way about work, our next possible big race, and whatever else.

The running skirt was great on its trial run. It seems to be a tad bigger than I expected, but I think rolling it up once will do the trick and keep the legs from moving. I really liked it and plan to take it on our long run this weekend think. Please excuse the funky irridecent look, we have wierd lighting.

We did all 3 miles despite all the mucus running around my head and actually achieved negative splits aka got faster with each mile. Although we were definitely moving slow the first mile so it was easy to improve.

I was excited to have The Biggest Loser on tonight to watch, and I kept hearing a strange noise. I turned around and saw this...

Normally Peachie will lick her bed while she is sitting in it licking her foot which she is obsessive about, but tonight she was going to town on the bed.

I was also able to capture this wonderful experience on video for those dog lovers out there

Ok, off to see who gets voted off the biggest loser. See ya Wednesday!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Hope everyone is having a nice Sunday, I am personally exhausted. After waking up this morning John and I headed up to the gym for some weights. We are both very serious about getting back into a strength training routine, so hopefully we can keep it up.

Today I did legs, I think it will be helpful when it comes to running both in making me stronger and faster, also toning up the legs certainly can't hurt, right? I pushed myself pretty hard this morning but tried to keep the weight manageable, the last thing I want is to wake up tomorrow and not be able to walk.

After our gym session we headed home for a quick breakfast and then set out for what is becoming our routine Sunday morning bike ride.

We had planned to do 20 miles, but it was SOOO windy and was slowing us down and killing our already worn out legs, so we took a couple short cuts and cut the ride a little short.

Still was a solid ride, almost 19 miles. I have been wanting to work on increasing my average pace and make it seem effortless, but with the wind, today was not the day.

We spent the afternoon relaxing and what not. I went to the mall to browse and was ecstatic to find out I have dropped another pants size, making that 2 sizes down now- yay! I didn't buy anything but its nice to know all the hardwork is actually working.

Once John made it back from Lawtey we were debating going to see our friends to watch the last playoff game, but we both were too exhausted so John brought out one of our other tvs to hook up to the cable box and surround sound to watch the game.

Even though it looks like hard work, he did it pretty easily. If I had known it was so easy to do, I would have made him do this yesterday. Its so small compared to our normal 55 inch, but it will make due til our new bulb arrives.

Peachie was quite concerned with this new contraption that has arrived as well as caused us to rearrange all the furninture. She took plenty of time to investigate...

I spent the better part of the evening cutting veggies for the week, and getting some dinners prepared.
I sliced cucumbers and green bell peppers for my lunches.Then cut up some kiwi and mango to freeze for yogurt toppings (I was really excited to do this). I love being able to have yummy topping for morning yogurt bowls or to put on top of ice cream.

It was also my first time cutting mango and apparently there is a big piece of sheet rock that acts as the pit or seed and it was getting really annoying and I mangeled part of the mango, mostly because I had no idea what I was doing.

After the fruit and veggies I cut up chicken and more veggies to make kabobs for dinner tomorrow night. I love that everything is all cut and marinating and that I will be able to just throw it on tomorrow night. I also made some chicken salad to take for lunch this week one day- maybe Tuesday.

I then decided it was dinner time, and all I wanted was some veggies, hence this came to fruition...

I had a small yellow squash sliced and broiled and an entire container or sliced portobelo mushrooms! The mushrooms are so filling and meaty that I told John they can replace my meat every day! 50 mushrooms is only 110 calories and 19 grams of protien- can't beat that.

After eating John and I folded laundry while watching White Out that we had gotten from redbox, it was ok, scary at times, and a little confusing. We are now watching OT of the football game and my eyelids are very heavy. Maybe someone will wake me with the final score...

Saturday, January 23, 2010

2 posts on a Saturday, y'all should feel special. Or maybe its because the tv is still dead and the computer is becoming my new favorite electronic. Behind the Garmin and iPhone of course!

After I made it home to relive my race details, John and I headed to Tijuana Flats for some lunch. I ordered 2 soft tacos with a side of chips and salsa. I managed to get through taco 1, but taco 2 I could barely finish the insides. I did have about 1/3 of the chips and salsa.

Once home from Flats, I checked our official race results only to be bummed out that my average pace was more like 9:21 than 9:13- Garmin marked an extra .04 miles and apparently that creates a BIG difference when calculating average pace- not so happy with how that 9:21 looks now :(

I did some reading and then got SO bored I told John we had to go grocery shopping! We went to Costco and Publix for all the usual culprits and also brought home a HUGE case of oranges which I have been obsessed with lately. I also pickede up some yummy looking soup I plan to try for lunch this week.

While we were out we decided we would go to the gym to watch the Gator Basketball game at 6pm and would do some leisurely cardio for the 2 hours we would be there, so we knew we would need an early dinner to make sure we made it through those 2 hours. Once home, John wanted burgers so I threw a few together and 5pm dinner was had- I felt like such a senior citizen! I had a small 4 ounce burger with about an ounce of shredded chedder, honey mustard and ketchup-mmmm!

We made it to the gym right at 6pm and I had decided that I would do tomorrow's scheduled 6 mile run tonight on the treadmill. John's leg has been bothering him so he will be taking a few days off from running so I figured a great way to get these 6 miels out of the way since I was doing it alone.

With a great playlist running and the basketball game holding my attention I did the first 4.5 miles at an easy 10 minute pace and had to stop for a bathroom break. Once back I did another 2.5 miles to make it 7 miles which sounds better than 6 anyways. I slowed down after that and walked for 2 more miles until the game was over. I stopped the treadmill at an hour and 47 minutes, with 35 seconds left in the game. At this point I figured maybe 2 minutes max until the game was over, so I would just stretch for 2 minutes. Well those 35 seconds on the clock turned out to be a 5 minute buzzer beater with the Gators winning!

Now home, tired and sweaty. I realized I did 12.1 miles total today: 3.1 this morning, 7 mile treadmill run followed by 2 miles of hill walking, and man my legs are tired. John is out searching for a movie to watch and I think I am going to have a chocolate chip cookie, a bath, and a magazine- what a fabulous Saturday night!

Tomorrow morning we have big plans for a bike ride and weights. We both have built a strength training regimin that we hope to stick with and Sunday will be our legs day. See y'all in the AM!

Happy Saturday morning to all! John and completed the Matanzas 5k this morning.

We went, we ran, and now we're home.

Last night I laid out all my stuff for this morning. I knew it was supposed to be cooler so I laid out 2 outfits, 1 for a slight chill and one for a little colder and more wind protection.

I ended up going with the warmer, it was 52 at race time with about 10mph winds. Although it was quite sunny and I think I would have been fine either way.

I had a normal-ish breakfast this morning. 2 slices of toast, 1 with PB and one with Apple Butter. My throat was a tad scratchy so I mad a cup of tea to try and relax it.

I always hate leaving the little Peach on the weekends since we leave her for the majority of the week, but she didn't really seem to notice we were going, and we left her in this spot...

I threw a wind breaker on when we headed out for the car ride, stay warm while I could.

I opted not to carry my camera or phone with me today, so there are not ANY race pictures. John managed to snag one on his phone, but it was NOT pretty so I will spare you that one.

When the gun went off, it only took us abotu 20 seconds to cross the mats and things thinned out pretty well. We passed a couple people but I felt like we started in a good spot. I was on a mission to make sure I not only finished in "Under 30 minutes" which was my ultimate goal, but in my head I also wanted to average about a 9:15pace which means I needed to be done in about 29 minutes.

We hit mile 1 and Garmin beeped an 8:40 first mile. I felt good, but knew I wasn't going to hold 8:40 the rest of the way. I slowed a tad to about 9:00 pace to keep some energy and kept on going. This was about the time I lost John, but we agreed days ago we were on our own for this one, and it was go as fast as you can and don't look back.

I had an awesome playlist for this race that I worked on this week, and strategically put my favorite pump up songs at about the time I should hit each mile mark and then the last 1/2 mile. I knew I would need some pump ups then and it worked to my advantage to hear those songs exactly when I needed them.

At about mile 1.5 we pulled away from the water front and started looping back through the Flagler College area and on cobblestone roads. The cobblestone didn't faze me but the bright sun was getting me. I never got hot or overheated but annoyed at how much I was sweating and that I opted not to bring my sunglasses.

I walked through the water station that was right mast the 2 mile mark. I am not awesome enough to run through the water stations and not choke or spill all my water so I took a couple seconds to get some water and regain some composure. I took off again after my water and held close to a girl I had been using as a pacer for the last 1/2 mile or so. I got to mile 2 1/2 at about 23 minutes but had also gotten an AWFUL side cramp and told myself to slow down for 10-15 seconds because I knew I had to be able to finish this last half mile right on pace.

The last 10th of a mile was rough and as much as I was trying to push harder and finish fast I felt like my legs were moving so slow. I was convinced I looked like a slow loser crossing the finish line, but after looking at the Garmin stats it looks like I did speed up some- shocking!!!

I finished in 28:55 accomplishing both goals I set for myself today. I was happy with my time but feel like if I had paced myself a little better through mile 2 I would have finished better and probably a few seconds faster too.

BUT... I am SO excited! This is a new PR for me, by several minutes and its good to know all this training is working! The race breakdown looked like this:

Total Time- 28:55
Average Pace- 9:13

Mile 1- 8:40
Mile 2- 9:14
Mile 3- 9.51
Last .14- 1:09

I am very pleased with my stats and am SO excited for our half marathon which is 4 weeks from tomorrow!!!!
After the race we headed for the car and came home. We are thankful to have literally NO plans for the remainder of the weekend, except to teach Peachie to master this trick...

We are trying to teach little Peach to sit like a MierCat, ahahha! So much fun.

Friday, January 22, 2010

All three of us piled in the bedroom where the bedroom tv can at least play dvds. We had talked about and even started to move a tv out to the living room to hook up, but Monday will be here soon, and lets face it, I have plenty to read.

Today was a nice Friday, the usual Friday morning bagels, but took a turn for the best when the boss announced he was leaving at noon today:) This led to lunch with a co-worker and a surprise cupcake this afternoon.

John and I opted for a simply dinner and a light workout this evening before our race tomorrow. I am actually getting into bed soon to read and get to sleep. We have to be out the door about 7:30 tomorrow. Will back after the race with pics and a full recap!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Thank goodness it is almost Friday! I hope y'all are as excited as I am! Last night I headed to bed almost immediately after posting as I had developed a sore throat and severe achiness yesterday. I was determined to fend of the cold before it could set in and was in bed asleep by 9pm- lame I know. I slept like a rock until 6:30 this morning and still managed to lay in bed for another hour with the doggie before mustering enough energy to actually get up.

The good news is I woke up feeling better with only a slight scratch in my throat. I lazed around this morning and at about 9:30 headed over to Whole Foods to pick up some granola bars I was out of. This may sound very strange but WF is the cheapest place to buy the Clif-Z bars I like at $.69/bar. They are $.75 at publix and $.99 at target both with much less variety. I also grabbed the lobster bisque soup for lunch as I knew it would be great on my throat- and yes it was as AMAZING as it sounds!

I made a quick stop at 1st place sports (Actually the whole reason I headed to that side of town) to pick up our race packets for this weekend's race!

I love the colors and design on this shirt, but the bib numbers threw me for a loop today. Apparently the timing chip is built intot he bib number (you can see a tiny bump on the back) and it is a new way to use the disposable timing chip-hmmm, well we will see if it works. All I can say is I am looking forward to hearing the beep beep when we cross the mats Saturday morning.

In other news, I got an upsetting call at work tonight. John let me know that our TV is dead...WHAT!?!?!?!!?!? Luckily it seems just the bulb is burnt out and needs to be replaced, but we will be looking at Monday evening before we have a working tv again :( Not that it is a huge crutch but is a nice background noise) So without a doubt we will have an outdoor, reading and homework filled weekend.

We are now off to the gym at 8:50pm to get in a run this week as I did not yesterday and also watch the Gator Basketball game on tv- I am wearing my Gator running shorts for the occasion!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Welcome to Wednesday! I am so glad to be half over with my week, my boss is on the war path this week (this is not a first) and I am more than happy to be so close to Friday.

So today was a day of new things and it started like this...

I opted to do something new for breakfast today- a big yogurt mess!

It started off quite pretty, but ended like this...

It was 3/4 cup plain greek yogurt

a whole sliced pear

1/4 cup low fat granola

1/4 cup banana nut cherrios

1/4 cup frozen blueberries

This was a first time trfirstying this and I loved it. And yes it kept me full for a while!

I went to work and heard yet another first when I had a prospective student call me

"I can't come in tomorrow because it's supposed to rain and someone will have to stay home with the kids"

Yes, this woman was dead serious that she was not sending her kids to school in the rain... UNBELIEVABLE!!!! I went to school in the rain, in the heat, when I was sick, when I didn't feel like it. This also helped me realize that the problem is not the education system, it is the parents! I have never heard anything SO rediculous as keeping your kids home when its raining- its not like its a hurricane!

Ok, off my rant, here comes another first. I went to Sports Authority on my lunch hour to purchase another first with a gift card I had leftover from Christmas...

My very first Running Skirt!!!!!

I have heard so many great things about running skirts and I was so thrilled to find this one on sale!!! I am really excited to get moving with this baby on.

So onto my last first. The decision to wear my First running skirt for my FIRST half marathon!

I am thinking this will be my race day outfit. The pink totally works with the Breast Cancer Foundation we are running to support and I think it will just be so much fun!

We will see if that decision sticks once the weather forecasts get more accurate.

Off to do some homework and hopefully squeak in a run before this sore throat takes over.

Sorry for the lack of posting last night, literally nothing happened yesterday and there was nothing to talk about. I went to work, had leftovers for dinner, did not workout, and watched the biggest loser. Wow, do you feel so caught up now!

Hopefully today proves to be more entertaining. I have a lunch time excursion planned and a run to do tonight. There is also the possibility of a Ruth Chris dinner for work looming. They are wanting to do it tomorrow so I re-arranged a Drs appt before they charged me for missing my appointment, lets hope something actually pans out of that, otherwise I will have nothing to do tomorrow morning- I suppose I could do some homework, but really where is the fun in that?!?!

Ok, more later, I am going to actually try to get some work accomplished!

Monday, January 18, 2010

This morning John and I set our alarms early to head out and conquer another first for the weekend.

The first time we ever rode the Jacksonville-Baldwin trail, and the first time we ever rode 30 miles!

I was shocked how normal my legs felt after all they have done this weekend (11 mile run Friday night, 20 mile ride yesterday), but they didn't register any exhaustion until after we had gone about 5 miles.

We were both expecting a gorgeous day like we had yesterday, but we were very surprised to see the temperature had dropped from the time we left our house to the time we made it to the trail head. I had luckily thrown an extra jacket in the truck which I wore the entire ride, but John only had a thin shirt so he ended up wearing a work shirt he happened to have in the car.

We started to get some sun after about 5 miles and made it to the end (about 14.5 miles) and 2 miles back to the big rest area.

At the rest area I was starving as I had clearly already burned off my breakfast. I had a Clif-Z Bar and a package of Sport Beans.

We met a nice old man during our break who is a member of the North Florida Bike Club and was telling us about all their rides and traditions. The sun had gone back into hiding at this point and I told John we needed to get moving as I was getting REALLY cold and was nervous about getting back if we didn't get warmed up soon.

We hopped on our bikes and made it about 75 yards only to stuble onto this...

A train just sitting on the tracks, not moving, just sitting. The middle of the train was right in front of us, so there wasn't really a good way around it, so we sat for a while until it finally moved and then headed on our way.

We started off for the next 3 miles as fast as we could to try and warm-up as quick as possible, it worked, and right about that time the sun decided to re-appear.

I noticed this little compounf both coming and going on our adventure today. Yes this is someone's house marked with a confederate flag and broken down truck in the yard. What makes it even better is that broken down truck you see is not raised on cinder blocks or special car ramps, each wheel is propped up on 2 deflated tires- Can we say redneck!

After leaving the redneck-ville we were only about 6 miles away from the end and stopped at an area that was once a battlefield of some sort. There was some signs mostly referencing construction and Robert E. Lee. I caught a good shot of John in front of the only building

And John also found this sign posted that he liked

We had so much fun this morning, but I was also happy when we were finished. We rode for 2 1/2 hours and just shy of 30 miles- craziness!!!

Also to give you an idea of how hungry I was...

That 1762 is the number of calories that I burned on our ride- INSANE!!!

There were tons of runners/bikers out using the trail today, and I can see why it was great. 15 miles each way of straight, paved, and partially shaded trail. Once we loaded up the truck we headed straight for food, and today's choice was Panera. I had you-pick-two with salad and sandwich and also the apple they threw in as my side.

I also took a hot bath to warm up as I was still cold and then ran out for some errands. I finally dropped off our registration for this Saturday's race, hit Target, and publix. Once home I had a 2nd lunch- the last of the chili I made last week and an orange.

I did some homework and then John and I headed to the gym. He did weights and I got in a 3 mile run that I needed- I maintained my ideal race pace for this weekend. Tonight was chicken tacos and then folding laundry, painting my toes, prepping veggies for the week, and now the blog.

It is my bed time, and my body is in desperate need of rest- will see you tomorrow hopefully with some exciting news!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Well, I have been a busy girl since I last left you all. I had some toast with peanut butter before heading over to Chateau Colston last night.

We did manage to get some game watching in and the Gators pulled out a solid victory. We also started our own game playing...The boys pulled th make shift dining room table out to make a beer pong table. Many rounds were played, and in the end I think Katie ended up winning out.

The dogs did an excellent job on mop up duty making sure any spilled beer was promptly licked up. Things got pretty rowdy after a while and me, the worst beer pong player ever was even dragged into a game, luckily I was able to pawn off my beers to every other person in the room.

Chef Colston had quite the spread last night, I stuck to about 3 or 4 of the bbq meatballs, they were quite tasty and I couldn't help go back for more.

I managed to consume 1.5 beers throughout the festivites, but even that was hard as it left me feeling SO full.

The hard working Mrs. Colston made it home about half way through the evening and immediately started to catch up.

It has been WAY too long since I have seen all of these people and it was so fun to spend time with them all again.

We headed home and I was very clear that no alarms would be set this morning. I did manage to get up about 8am and made this lovely repeat for breakfast.

2 waffles with sliced pear and banana- still amazing!

I also managed to get in our weekly grocery shopping early this morning, and it was great to have it all out of the way. John noticed that the weather was shaping up perfectly and even earlier than expected so we headed out to log some miles on these babies!

It was a perfect day for a bike ride, and we set out at a moderate pace with a big loop in mind. We rode all over our part of Jacksonville, and I had a blast!

About mile 9 we stopped to let some other bikers and runners get some distance and I munched on these...

I thought they were pretty tasty. Rasberry flavored gummi chews. John wasn't such a fan, said they were too chewy, but I will definitely be keeping these babies around- esp for bike rides.

We finished up a long leisurely ride in a little under 2 hours. It was a pretty easy ride with the exception of some serious winds we encountered on and off throughout our whole ride.

Blame the crazy hair on the wind

I am loving the biking feature on the Garmin, it is wonderful to be able to keep track of all my workouts.

We did a little over 21 miles in a little under 2 hours. Our average pace was about 11.5 mph.

After our ride and burning 1,000 calories we were starving and headed up to McAlisters Deli for lunch. I had the Chipotle Chicken wrap and it was awesome! I ate about 3/4 of it with a side of fruit and John helped me polish off the rest.

After lunch we went out to run some errands, and I was able to FINALLY get my Yogaberry fix. Yogaberry is a spin-off of PinkBerry in NYC and is pretty much just as fabulous and a lot closer.

I got an 8 ounce original yogurt with mango, kiwi, and rasberries- Yum! Yogaberry is fat free, gluten free, and 25 calories per ounce.

John is not normally a huge yogaberry fan, he prefers coldstone or anywhere with some chocolate. Well Yogaberry had some new additions today and John became a very happy YB supporter...

Cookies and Cream with cookies and cream crumbles on top

We came home to relax a bit, and then I headed to the gym for some weights. I am on a mission to strength train 3 days a week, and after todays weight lifting session I realized how weak I have gotten, it was bad and my arms are already sore.

I have been switching out laundry and was bad and brought in take out for dinner, John and I both had burgers. I couldn't finish mine and it reminded me of why I pretty much stay away from greasy food.

Tomorrow John and I are headed to the Westside to take out bikes on the Jacksonville-Baldwin trail that goes from West Jacksonville all the way out to Baldwin. It will be about 30 miles round trip, and we plan to get out there early. I am relaxing now and updating the blog look and ipod and turning in soon.

Tomorrow after our ride I have quite a bit of laundry to put away as well as tidy up the apartment, do some homework, get in a run, and make a target trip. I am getting really excited for our 5k next Saturday, I realized today we haven't done a race since Thanksgiving day, and my legs are ready to see how fast they can go! Happy Sunday night, see you all tomorrow!